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  Olympic snowboarder Nick Baumgartner joined us in the studio Sunday morning to share his award winning essay about why his loves his mother.
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I pride myself in having the greatest and most loyal fans there are. With that said I nominated my Mom for a award for being my mentor, please help her win since she had been such an amazing women and molded me into the rolemodel that I am today. Please visit http://www.facebook.com/octanner.appreci My Story...
My mom is a Saint. Generous. Kind. Loving.
Selfless. Nurturing. And while my entire family inspires me and deserves recognition for my success, it is my mother who built my character, taught me through her example and lead me on the journey to reach my goals. With 4 boys to raise while my father was working on the road, she had her hands full. We were rambunctious and wild but she always dealt with us in a loving and caring way. When I was 3 years old they adopted my younger sister Ida and she changed our lives. Ida needed a loving home and better chance at life and my mother wanted to give that to her. Our financial resources were limited – we lived frugally while my dad worked out of town to make ends meet, but my mother’s resources of kindess, generosity and love were limitless. She wouldn’t let money prevent her from caring for others. With a family of 5 children, my parents decided to become foster parents for children who needed stable and loving environments. Our family welcomed children whose biological parents struggled with drug and alcohol addictions. She extended her reach. While providing for these children, my mother took it upon herself to help their parents overcome their addictions. The loving and supportive environment I grew up in, has made me who I am today. My parents taught me invaluable lessons. Money isn’t everything. Love is. Share the love you have and help others. Fight for what and who you believe in. Give of yourself, your time and talents. Help Others. My mother knew the important lessons that children could learn from organized sports – the value of hard work, teamwork, leadership and self-discovery. Every spare second in her busy day was spent driving my siblings and me to practice. And she did the same for all of my foster siblings, helping them to learn these important lessons. This amazing and hard-working woman is why I am grateful for the opportunities I have and the goals I am reaching. I want to say thank you to Mary Baumgartner, the best mother that I and all of our family could ever ask for. Thank you mom you truly are one of a kind. You’ve kept my head on straight and my goals clearly in front of me. I am here because of you.
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Posted 2 months 33 days ago (EDT)
Olympic Blog...The StartMy week off back home was deff not relaxing. I
was running and celebrating with the community but it was fun and I am
so proud of where I come from. Everyone is so excited for me and I am
pumped to be able to bring this kind of positive energy to the everyone
back home.
We had meet and greets at Alice’s and also Sach’s
both were so fun and I got so much support and wonderful words. Friday
I also had a huge Pep Rally at my local High School. They bussed all
the grades up to the high school gym and it was truly amazing. Landon’s
class got up in front of everyone and had a little skit which was so
cute. When Landon said “L is for Landon and I am so proud of my daddy”
It took everything I had not to cry in front of everyone. To hear him
say that was so great.
I started my trip to Vancouver on Monday when I
went down to Lindwall Motors to pick up a 2006 Chevy Colorado that they
were donating to drive me to the airport. They even sent we with a
driver. We headed up to the High School to meet up with: a State Cop,
Caspian cop, County, Iron River Fire Department… we took off from the
high school and headed towards crystal and half way there our fire
department turned off and left us in the hands of the crystal falls and
mastodon departments. It was great to see all the people cheering in
the streets and from their cars J After we made it through crystal and
got to the Boarder of Wis and Michigan we were passed off to the
Wisconsin state cops and the Florence Fire Department I still cant
believe how amazing everyone has been. They drove us almost to Iron
Mountain where once again we were passed off to another department. The
Iron Mountain cops with three wide up Front and three fire trucks
behind them me with Teddy Johnson driving and Jeff Oclaire along for the
ride, my parents behind and three more cop cars bringing up the rear.
This went on all the way through Niagara where we had to drive on alone
which was alright I think we were holding a lot of people up haha.
I continued my trip on till I got to Green Bay
where I made a stop off to see a young man named Devon who was recently
in a snowboarding accident. It was my honor to be able to try and cheer
him and his family up. I hope everything goes great and I know that
Devon will continue to fight and with the love of his family nothing
will hold them back.
When I arrived at my Brother Beau’s house I got
to see the sculptures that he had created including a big one of me
snowboarding J well done Beau!
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Posted 2 months 42 days ago (EDT) Today Show!At the today show, just got make-up (first time for me with make
up) hopefully I get to talk but I am guessing not. Tough being a male
model, you know what I mean :-)
Just Finished...Today show :-) Ann Curry is so amazing, and it was
great meet David Lauren (awesome guy) all the people at RL are so
great...pictures and videos to follow!
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Posted 3 months 29 days ago (EDT) Blog From SwitzerlandSwitzerland went pretty good. The course was super fast and really fun. The first day of training I was a little off my game the first runs but figured it all out by the end of the day. When off the hill not much excitement just some poker with the guys and that is about it. Time trials went pretty well too, I slowed down in a couple spots to make sure that I didn't mess up and fall but still posted the 4th fastest time. Second run the clouds came out and the course slowed down quite a bit. I was one of the only people to improve my time and had the fastest of all the second runs. I only beat my time by .07 so I stayed in the 4th position.Race day I was more amped then I have been in a while which is great everything is starting to come together. I am riding harder and more aggressive then ever. My first heat went well and I finished 1st in the heat followed by Shaun Palmer (still pretty cool racing with him :-)) The second heat was a stacked heat with Xavier Delerue who is one of the best snowboarder of all time. He is an amazing boardercross legend and one of the most insane big mountain riders you will find today. The heat also had "the man the myth the legend" Shaun Palmer a great guy and a true pioneer in the sport of snowboarding and someone I always looked up to. The final guy in the heat was Nate Holland four time X-games gold medalist. I charged out of the gate but had a small mistake that put me right behind the leader Delerue, we charged down the steep face at intense speeds flying off multiple jumps heading into the first corner. Holland drafted me and passed me over the jump just before the corner but by the corner I had already made my move to overcome him. As we switched over from left corner to an immediate right corner I was shoved in the back as I went through the corners and past Nate. It would have taken getting hit by nothing less than a truck to get me off my line so I charged through the corner keeping my composer and barely making it inside the gate just clipping it with my toes. I kept my eyes on the prize and took off towards Xavier and finished just behind him to qualify on to the Semi's. When someone tries to cheat to beat you and you hold it all together and they dont advance, it makes the win that much better and I just feed off it and took that confidence into the next heat. The Semi Finals got no easier facing the leader of the world cup Pierre Vaultiere along with his teammate Xavier Delerue again. I had a great start and took off with the early lead, I could feel Pierre hot on my tail the entire race but I just stayed on my lines and drag raced him to the finish to win the semi's. In the Finals I had that great start again but Pierre passed my after I gave him to much room through the first tight corners. I chased him down the course holding of David Speiser until a big mistake of a step down before the final corner. I lost to much speed and was passed just before the finish line to take 3rd. If I had held him off and taken second I would have cinched my Olympic birth. With my 3rd I moved into 3rd overall on the team but the pressure is still very very strong. I need to head over to Quebec and race hard to hold my spot and make the Olympic team. I want this so bad and racing under the pressure will only make me a better competitor and get me prepared for Vancouver. I will make sure to keep you posted on how everything turns out in Quebec. On Saturday before heading to Zurich 10 of us guys went over to cheer on the US men in the World Famous Wengen Downhill. Trying to get to the event would be like trying to get to the stadium for a Super Bowl. There is also no cars so the only way to get up to the event is by train, unless you try one other method. The train stations were packed and out of control so we found other means. We drove to the other side of the mountain and were escorted over the beautiful Swiss Alps by Helicopter. I jumped in a unbelievable VIP Ecureil B3 with my teammates Jonathan Cheever and Mick Dierdorff. We landed right at the top of a ski resort and started our way down to the venue by foot with the rest of the guys (Seth Wescott, Curtis Bacca, Graham Wantanabe, Jason Smith, Shaun Palmer and Nate Holland.) There were thousands and thousands of people finding there way down the mountain like ants, just to get a small glimpse of the best skiers in the world risking there lives to determined the fastest of the day on this legendary course. It was an amazing experience but tough luck today for the Americans. I am now about to head to bed in Zurich and head to the airport first thing in the morning. I will post all the pictures from today and this week as soon as I arrive in Quebec. Thanks so much to everyone for all your support and kind words.
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